These statistics, investigated and revealed throughout years of research and analysis by our scientists and conservationists here at ZSL, paint a sad picture but the future is not written yet.

We need your support.

As an international wildlife conservation charity, we work in over 50 countries around the world to protect wildlife and their habitats. With your support we can do even more.

There are a number of ways you can help to protect the future for wildlife such as donating online or by text and by sharing our video on social media with #WithWildlife to help raise awareness of our work. To find out how you can get involved in our conservation work click here.

Help us to ensure that we continue to live in a world with wildlife.

Donate £3 to support our conservation work

Share your support

Join us in championing a world #WithWildlife by sharing a photo of your favourite animal on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #WithWildlife and tag @OfficialZSL.

Spread our message by sharing our video on social media to help raise awareness of our work to ensure that we continue to live in a world with wildlife. .

Help to identify wildlife in remote locations around the world

We created the Instant Wild app to bring amazing photos of wildlife to the wider public, to share the amazing wildlife we’re monitoring around the world and so you can get involved in our conservation work.

If you have an iPhone or iPad you can download the free app and get incredible live wildlife images instantly sent to your device. You can help us to identify the animals you see in the photos, which adds thousands of hours to our conservation efforts. You’ll be able to help us identify iconic species from our Kenya cameras, including giraffes, zebras and rhinos. You will have an insight into the real life movements of wildlife in the Kenyan savannah and the Costa Rican rainforest.

Become a Citizen Scientist

Champion Wildlife each month

Continue to support our conservation work by giving just £3 every month. By becoming a Wildlife Champion, you can help to secure the future of some of the world's most endangered animals. To thank you for your support, you will receive a special Champion supporters pack, regular conservation updates and a copy of our Wild About magazine three times a year.

Get the latest conservation news

Sign up to our conservation e-newsletter to receive updates about ZSL’s latest conservation work from around the world.

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ZSL and its partners in the Marine CoLABoration are leading the way to make London the first capital city to stop using single-use plastic water bottle free. If current rates continue, by 2025 there will be one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish in the ocean.

By taking the simple step to use a refillable bottle, you will help to protect the world’s ocean from plastic pollution.

A world with elephants

Video of ZSL is working for a world with elephants #WithWildlife

Help ZSL to ensure that we continue to live in a world #WithWildlife.

Protecting African forest elephants

Elephant populations all over the world are being targeted for their ivory, and research suggests that the African forest elephant will be driven to extinction unless a concerted global effort is made to halt poaching, with over 65% now gone from the wild.

ZSL has been working with the government of Cameroon to improve protection of key forest elephant habitats such as the Dja conservation complex by training and equipping eco-guards. This helps to tackle illegal wildlife activity in the region and empowers local communities to help fight wildlife crime in their forests.

We are also helping to build capacity in another key elephant habitat - West Africa's W-Arli-Pendjari conservation complex. The region is home to more than 60% of the elephants in West Africa, and we will be helping to combat the ivory trade through the spatial monitoring system SMART and innovative 'poachercams'.

A world with tigers

Help ZSL to ensure that we continue to live in a world #WithWildlife.

Putting an end to tiger poaching

Over 95% of tigers have now disappeared from the wild. Tiger skin, bones, teeth, claws, tails and whiskers are all in demand on the black market as decorative items or for use in traditional medicine. It’s hardly surprising that this magnificent animal has been hunted until numbers hit a low of 3,200 in 2010.

In Indonesia, critical sites for the remaining 300 or so Sumatran tigers are protected by local staff with support from ZSL. Patrol teams in the Berbak and Sembilang National Parks share intelligence with others on the island to identify and arrest wildlife dealers and poachers. We are also helping to monitor and protect critical tiger landscapes in Nepal and India.

Despite poaching becoming more organised and international in scope, there is cause for hope: the latest global tiger census counted 3,890 animals - the first rise in more than a century.

A world with rhinos

Help ZSL to ensure that we continue to live in a world #WithWildlife.

Protecting black rhinos in Kenya

Illegal demand for the rhino horn is perhaps the most immediate threat to all species of rhinoceros. In Africa, the black rhino is critically endangered, having suffered a catastrophic 96% decline from 65,000 in 1970 to just 2,300 in 1993.

In response, the Kenyan government established the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), which has created a number of fenced sanctuaries to protect the rhino. ZSL has been working with KWS since 1993 to protect species such as black rhino and elephant, to build conservation capacity and infrastructure, and to help it achieve its goal of increasing the number of black rhinos in Kenya to 1,000 by 2020.

ZSL are improving law enforcement and ecological monitoring effectiveness with various partners across Kenya through use of new technologies to tackle illegal wildlife trade including a spatial monitoring tool known as SMART and Instant Detect a camera trap system that uses satellite technology. It allows images to be sent in real-time from virtually anywhere in the world and has been used to help tackle poaching of endangered species by providing an early warning system for rangers.

A world with seahorses

Help ZSL to ensure that we continue to live in a world #WithWildlife.

Keeping seahorses in our seas

Around 15-20 million seahorses are illegally traded every year, and with other threats such as overfishing and exploitation, their future is seriously threatened.

Research by ZSL has shown they are overfished by trawlers and fishers, while their habitats are polluted and destroyed. However our research continues to provide a scientific basis for changing regulations on seahorse harvesting, and setting up marine protected areas to protect seahorse habitats.

We work with the UK Border Agency CITES team at Heathrow to monitor the trade in marine organisms, such as seahorses, coming into the UK, and research by Project Seahorse, a ZSL and University of British Columbia partnership, has also helped make the case for banning exports of vulnerable species further afield.

Global wildlife populations on course to decline by 67 per cent by 2020

The 2016 Living Planet Report released by WWF and ZSL reveals that overall global vertebrate populations are on course to decline by an average of 67 per cent from 1970 levels by the end of this decade, unless urgent action is taken to reduce humanity’s impact on species and ecosystems.

Global populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles have already declined by 58 per cent on average since 1970.

This is an average annual decline of two per cent, with no sign yet that this rate will decrease.

Video of Living Planet Report 2016

65% of African forest elephants gone

The central African forest elephant population has declined by over 60%

50% of coral gone

Over 70% of Grevy's zebra gone

Since 1977, the Grevy Zebra population has declined from 13,718 (Dirschl and Wetmore, 1978) to approximately 4,300 in 1988 (KREMU, 1989, Grunblatt et al., 1989, ZSL Living Planet index, 2016). Records in 2011 show the Grevy Zebra population at 2,827 (Grevy Zebra Trust, 2016). In 2015, it is estimated the figure is now between 2,000-2,500 Grevy's Zebra left in the wild.

Based on the latest, reputable statical reports in 2011, this would represent a 79% decrease.

Over 30% black bears gone

Widespread illegal killing of bears and trade in parts, combined with loss of habitat indicate that this species is likely declining in most parts of its range, especially in Southeast Asia and China. Questionnaire surveys also indicate declining numbers in Taiwan, with areas of local extirpation caused by habitat degradation and illegal hunting. Japan appears to be the only range country that has documented an increasing number of Asiatic black bears, reflected by an increasing area of occupied range (Oi and Yamazaki 2006).

Although actual data on population sizes or trends are lacking, it seems likely, given the rate of habitat loss and uncontrolled exploitation that the world population has declined by 30–49% over the past 30 years (3 bear generations) and that this rate will continue during the next 30 years unless abated by the implementation of significant conservation measures.